"Apothecary!"
The Firstborn Space Marine shouted over the comms.
Krogar stood motionless, but blood was already pouring from his chest and the wound on his head. His vision was growing blurrier, darkness gradually swallowing its edges.
He couldn't feel anything, so he couldn't sense what was happening to his body. He looked fine, but in truth, his body had begun counting down to death.
His close friend was calling for an Apothecary, but none were responding nearby. They had pushed too far ahead.
As Krogar's legs gave way and he slid down the wall, a surge of Psionic Power entered his body.
His wounds began to heal, his strength gradually returned, and his fading vision cleared.
Then Chief Librarian Manros's voice echoed in the ears of Krogar and his friend.
"Go to these coordinates."
A set of coordinates appeared in their visors, along with arrows pointing the way.
"If you encounter the enemy, defeat them. If you don't, take up position there. Stay conscious so I can sense your souls."
Manros offered no further explanation before ending the psychic communication.
Krogar and his friend immediately left the control room and sprinted through the corridors inside the wall, following the arrows.
Though no explanation had been given, they could both work out that the Librarians were preparing a ritual. It might be meant to fix the Navigation Tower in place, since it kept changing locations inside the Palace of Thorns.
That was exactly the plan.
Manros intended to find the nodes for the ritual. Each node's coordinates had to include a 13 or a 2 on at least one of the x, y, and z axes, or contain both 13 and 2.
The principle was much the same as the ritual Chaos had performed on Badab Prime: use something associated with